Women in Temptation ( Jiri Vejdelek, 2010): Czech Republic

Reviewed by Jim Burns. Viewed at the Santa Barbara Film Festival 2011.

Women in Temptation is a story about three generations of women and their romantic journeys that are more than complicated, yet  very thought provoking at times. The story follows the lives  of these three women as they struggle to find love and happiness. With constant romantic twist and extenuating circumstances, this story would probably serve very well to the many fans of Sex in the City.

This film was definitely more geared towards a female audience. Even with the very strong performances by the cast of beautiful female actresses, and the threat of having to write this review, this film was very hard to keep an interest in. I think most guys would struggle with keeping an interest in this film due to some kind of man code.  Although, I did like the performance of the actress that played the marriage counselor who’s husband has decided to leave her for another women. I thought she gave a very sensual and honest performance that reminded me of the famous character Mrs. Robinson, made famous by Anne Bancroft in The Graduate.

During the screening of this film, there were several key moments where it was impossible to keep up with the dialogue because the white lettering  used for the subtitles was just too bright in contrast with what was on the screen, and this made the words unreadable. This must have happened five or six times throughout the screening, and almost always happened during a crucial part of the dialogue. This alone was enough to make this film a bust for me, but combine that with a story line that seemed to come straight off the Lifetime Network’s assembly line for chick-flicks, and this film was one I would have disliked in any language.